


Is this a dagger which I see before me?

by jammingkambing



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Gen, Humor, I'm Sorry William Shakespeare, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason Todd-centric, Jason is a Dork, Rebirth, References to Macbeth, References to Shakespeare, Shakespeare Quotations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:13:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25524955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jammingkambing/pseuds/jammingkambing
Summary: "Red Hood," Batman says. "Tell me that you and Nightwing are not at all tied to the massive explosion that just happened in the Bowery right now.""Lady Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 3. 'Things without all remedy should be without regard: what’s done, is done,' " Jason quotes, and he feels so badass."I cannot fucking believe that I idolized a Shakespeare nerd," Tim says.orJason likes the Scottish Play a lot.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Duke Thomas & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Comments: 4
Kudos: 375





	Is this a dagger which I see before me?

He hears the window open and shut and recognizes the set of light footsteps coming towards the couch, but Jason doesn't pause in his speaking. He keeps his eyes on the point in the wall and, if his fist clenches, it's only because the script calls for it.

"Is this a dagger which I see before me?" Jason says.

Dick gasps as he recognizes the famous words because, contrary to what Jason may say, he did pay attention in English class kinda. The next second, Dick has his phone out and the camera rolling.

"The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still."

Dick snickers even though Jason is doing a good job of angstily reaching for the imaginary dagger: there are at least six very real and very sharp knives on Jason's person right now.

"...I see thee still and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before."

Dick can't help it. Jason's leather jacket has an egregious amount of bloodstains. But Jason willfully ignores the irony--or sees it as a challenge--and he's undeterred in giving the best Macbeth soliloquy this side of Gotham.

"Thou sure and firm-set earth, hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear  
thy very stones prate of my whereabout," and Jason sneaks in what he would later deem as the best application of his stealth training. The hardwood floor doesn't make a sound.

"And take the present horror from the time, which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives."

A perfectly timed bell rings from Jason's phone.

"I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.  
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell."

There is a new-ish copy of Macbeth on Jason's coffee table; Dick only knows this because it comes hurtling towards his face immediately after Jason utters, "hell." Only years of Batman-conditioned reflexes allow Dick to duck in time and avoid dismemberment by enraged thespian. Dick figures it's the right time to stop the recording and sends the video to the group chat.

When Dick looks up from his phone, his brother has his arms crossed. Jason is glowering.

"Can I just say that you gave a great performance?"

"I will actually decapitate you," Jason says, which Dick thinks would be more convincing if he hadn't just performed a fully memorized and rehearsed, 2-minute-long soliloquy.

"I love you too, Jay. Hey, I have a friend in the Royal Shakespeare Company." Dick goes for a smile, and Jason frowns to match it.

"Hey, I outfitted this safehouse with booby traps which I can remotely activate," Jason says, and Dick can't confidently call his bluff. The floor under him does sound a bit hollow, not that he thinks about it.

"Wait, I actually have a reason to interrupt your drama session," Dick assuages. "But I kinda liked the drama session more, can we go back to that?"

"Knives, Dick. I have many. I'll even let you pick which one I'll use because all of them can fit into your ribs equally well." Jason pointedly pats at a lumpy spot on the sofa that is suspiciously close to Dick's chest, and Dick scoots away from it.

Before any more threats are carried out, Dick hands over a black flash drive with an embossed bat symbol. Jason's expression reluctantly eases.

"Is this for the Maggia case?" Jason asks, and he wonders how Dick stumbled onto it when the Maggias had practically no business in the Blüd.

"Yeah, since I heard you were digging into it. I've uncovered some deals between them and Blockbuster, and I--conveniently--came across some details of a drug drop that's happening tomorrow night. In the Bowery, too. I was thinking that you could help me out here."

"Only because it's my case, and in my territory," he says, and though Jason tries his best to hide his excitement, Dick can still see the look in his eyes that augurs multiple fiery explosions. "I'll look over the files, and I'll tell you where to meet."

"Also..."

"What now, Dickhead?" 

"We could get Basil Karlo to help us."

"Why, exactly?" 

"He's a great fighter. And we could always use an inside man."

Jason stares, and Dick feels that confusion is the only thing preventing him from getting a knife out. Dick continues nonetheless.

"...he also acted in a bunch of Shakespeare movies, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving some tips--"

The knife is out, and Dick flips over to the window and flees as Jason lets loose a litany of very modern, very non-Shakespearian swears.

~

Jason finishes planting the last explosive charge at the same time that Red Robin speaks up in the main channel.

"I didn't know that Hood was a theater kid."

Jason looks to the other side of the warehouse and sees Nightwing grinning. Jason hears Dick's tinny voice a moment later.

"He wasn't, but you should've seen him in high school. He kept watching the Merchant of Venice. You know, the one with Al Pacino?"

Jason has a kill list. Dick's name, already pretty high, has just shot up to the top and Tim is not far behind.

"Oh my god," Tim says. "Jason wouldn't be a murderer if he had just watched the Taming of the Shrew instead of the Merchant of Venice."

Tim and Dick are of equal priority now. Even so, Jason forgoes a perfectly good opportunity to take one Richard Grayson off his list when he signals to Dick that the explosives are primed. Dick gives an all-clear back, and he moves toward the warehouse window.

"Todd is, at least, a cultured murderer," Damian says. "He executed an admittedly decent soliloquy."

"Thank you, Damian," Jason says as he and Dick rejoin the warehouse's entrance. They start running. "You were always my favorite brother."

Dick is offended, and Jason pretends not to see it as he looks down and pushes the little red button on his belt.

"Red Hood," Batman says. "Tell me that you and Nightwing are not at all tied to the massive explosion that just happened in the Bowery right now."

"Lady Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 3. “Things without all remedy should be without regard: what’s done, is done,"" Jason quotes, and he feels so badass.

"I cannot fucking believe that I idolized a Shakespeare nerd," Tim says, just to break the moment, and Jason wants to give him a slow, slow death.

Bruce sighs, but he still asks if Jason has a higher definition recording of the soliloquy.

~

The injuries of the evening amount to: the usual bruises, a concussion and a bicep wound in need of stitches. They're the marks of an easy night, and while Jason does wish that easy nights should happen more often, he feels like he could do more. It's Gotham. There's probably a mob conference happening across the street.

Dick notices--largely because he feels the same--and he suggests that they go to the Cave.

"Everybody's on Earth and in Gotham," he explains. "Al just texted me that Duke and Cass are back from their recon. It's a happy case of happenstance."

"Lay off the alliterations, bro," Jason says. He doesn't find the idea of going to the Cave completely repulsive. "God knows we can't handle you overusing your intelligence."

"Only a nerd like you would bring up alliterations in casual conversation, bro. Just hop in the car, Hood."

Dick drives them through the highways in his ugly disguised muscle car thing that has bits of trash and food on the floor. He claims it's for maximum realism, but Jason kindly points out that maximum realism doesn't include spandex-clad vigilantes in the driver seat.

Dick replies that if Jason was really going for a serious Punisher kind of vibe, he shouldn't be wearing a big bright dildo-helmet.

Jason screams, "Ad hominem attack!" and the trip ends with a graceless skidding and a stop as Jason argues that the helmet is a reclamation, and a mark of identity, but he is actually thinking of a new costume, but that isn't the point--

A tapping at the window.

"Cheesecake," Cass says. "With or without you."

Jason stumbles his way out of the seat but, for the record, he's first to the cake while Dick is a truly pathetic second.

"Jeff asked what 'lmao' means," Duke is saying.

"One time, he was explaining something to me," Steph says. "But I couldn't take him seriously because he said 'skrrrrt' at the end."

"I think I've finally accepted it: Black Lightning is the principal who tries too hard to be cool," Duke says, and he looks pained as he eats his blueberry cheesecake.

"Ah, Masters Dick and Jason, thank you for joining us. The cheesecake has awaited you."

"Where's B?" Dick asks once his upper lip is decorated with a fair coating of blueberry.

"Masters Bruce and Damian are currently heading back from police headquarters," Alfred answers, and he sets aside the last two slices of cheesecake. They are put on a plate with little patterns of bats circling the edges.

"Jason Todd eating a cheesecake," Tim says. "I can't believe the Thane of Cawdor and Glamis would elect to eat with us peasants."

"See, Tim, if I do it, I look like one of those tough guys who're really just sensitive at heart," Jason says, pointing and stabbing his fork expressively. "You just look pitiful."

"Jay, dude," Duke says, grinning. "How long have you been acting Billy Shakes in your apartment?"

"More importantly," Steph interrupts. "Have any of the Outlaws acted with you?"

"I'm not answering either of those questions."

"Well, we all knew that Roy was Mercutio anyway," Steph says, and Jason's silence gives it away. They all laugh, and Jason sets a mental reminder to ask Roy for some pictures.

Case grasps Jason's shoulder and intones seriously, "You had... feeling. Good words and good actions."

Jason gives Cass the rest of his slice of cake.

"Master Jason is indeed an excellent actor," Alfred says as he clears up the plates. "A feat which can be attributed to both natural talent and clear guidance. Guidance provided by teachers who, might I add, would like to see their student's performances every now and then."

Jason tries desperately to redeem himself by apologizing and explaining that, really, he didn't really want to bother Alfred with his halfway-decent Macbeth, but Alfred is stalwart in his disappointment.

The old butler takes on a look of mounting fear and panic and, voice trembling, he utters, "Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake thy gory locks at me."

Jason recalls almost instantly: Act 3, Scene 4. Macbeth had said it to Banquo's ghost.

Exit Alfred, carrying the plates and forks and Jason's acting credibility out of the Cave.

It is only then that Duke, Steph and Tim realize what Dick and Cass suspected and what Jason inherently knows: Alfred is always the best in everything.

~

Jason wakes up at 12 noon, orders a breakfast burrito at 12:11, hears a knock at his door at 12:27, pays for the order within the minute, and sees the package at 12:30. 

It's laid just behind his potted plant--hidden from the opportunists of the neighborhood--and it's wrapped in manila paper secured by a string. Judging by feel alone, the package is almost definitely a book. Upon closer inspection, Jason can see a little bat symbol embossed on one edge of the wrapping.

One breakfast burrito later, Jason holds the package a careful distance away from his face and tears the wrapping paper.

Jason crumbles in nostalgia.

It's an old, battered copy of Macbeth. The cover is blue and the title is written in curly calligraphy, just like Jason remembers. Going to the first page reveals his name written in a poor imitation of the title but, back then, he thought it was a goddamn masterpiece compared to the other things from his stash.

The rest of the book is in the exact same state as he last saw and felt it. The oil and water stains are still there, and all of his favorite pages are still earmarked for future reference.

The crisp, new note only serves as a juxtaposition from the rest of the well-worn familiarity. It's tucked between the last page and the back cover.

_Jason,_

_I know that you don't want me to dig up your old things, and I apologize for whatever lines this crosses, but seeing Dick's video of you reminded me of who you were. More importantly, it reminded me of who you've grown to be._

_I always loved your old performances, but I think I like your current interpretations more. Alfred is very proud, and so am I._

_Bruce_

_P.S. I can't stop you from getting your other books whenever, but I can give you some first editions if you promise not to cause any more unnecessary explosions._

" 'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more,' " Jason says. "But it sure is bright while it lasts."

**Author's Note:**

> i stand by the fact that jason's favorite book is NOT pride and prejudice. try to prove me wrong and he'll name himself thane of crime alley just to spite you
> 
> thanks for reading!


End file.
